


Who Said I Was Straight?

by ForeignSwagger (MickeyDring)



Category: K-pop, NCT (Band)
Genre: Bi Johnny, Coming Out, M/M, SM rookies - Freeform, nct dorm, predebut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:15:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27882101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MickeyDring/pseuds/ForeignSwagger
Summary: Ten comes out to Johnny and Johnny returns the favor.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 4
Kudos: 124





	Who Said I Was Straight?

“Who said I was straight?” Johnny said with a smirk. 

Ten had been looking down at his sock-clad feet for the bulk of this conversation, but his eyes shot up at Johnny’s words. For a moment the two just stared at each other. Johnny with an easy confidence and Ten with a furrowed brow. It took all of Johnny’s willpower not to laugh at the look on his friend’s face. He could practically see the gears working in Ten’s head; frantically trying to figure out what he wanted to say and how best to translate it so that the meaning wouldn’t be lost. 

“Does that mean you’re…” 

Johnny shrugged, finally breaking eye contact. 

“I don’t know what I am. I don’t really like labels.”

At that, Ten rolled his eyes. He couldn’t help it. Johnny was great at convoluted non-answers like this. The man was a giant walking set of contradictions. 

“So, you’re not straight,” Ten reiterated. 

“No. I don’t think so.” 

“And you’re not gay.”

At that Johnny got a funny, dreamy look on his face. Ten didn’t even want to begin thinking about what the look met. Ten loved women, of course, but the idea of being intimate with one made his stomach churn uncomfortably. 

“No,” Johnny said finally. “Definitely not gay.” 

“So what?” Ten said, sitting up. “You’re bi?”

Johnny gave another shrug. 

“Yeah. Maybe.”

At this, Ten picked up the nearest pillow and tossed it at him.

“Impossible is what you are,” he grumbled. 

Johnny laughed, low and hearty, hugging the pillow to his chest. 

At the familiar sound, some of the tension that had been pooling in Ten’s body dissipated. This was certainly not how he had imagined this conversation going, but it was far from the worst. It seemed, as usual, that his American giant was just full of surprises. 

“Do the others know?” Ten asked quietly. 

Johnny’s expression turned serious. 

“Some of them,” he admitted. “You know, I’ve been part of this company for a long time. You’re not the first person to come out to me.”

Ten nodded. It made sense. Johnny was intimidating, sure, but he was also one of the most accommodating people he’d ever met. Most people took for granted all of the effort Johnny put into making them feel comfortable and at ease, but Ten, who felt like a lost puppy traipsing around a foreign landscape on most days, appreciated it more than words could say. Whenever he felt frustrated and alone and unable to communicate his thoughts, Johnny was right around the corner, ready to teach him. When Ten started missing home, Johnny would start telling him about Chicago—it was the perfect distraction. Worked every single time. If Ten was tired and on the verge of breaking down, Johnny was there with some ridiculous joke or antic to make him burst out laughing. Johnny was cool and kind and mature in a way that the other trainees just weren’t. Ten was actually kind of relieved to know that he wasn’t the only one who recognized these qualities in him. 

Ten desperately wanted to ask Johnny who else in the group was gay, but in the nearly six months he’d known him, Johnny had never been anything but decent. He would never spill secrets told to him in confidence and Ten would not ask him to. Instead, he pulled his knees up under him and asked, “so you’ve never been with a guy?”

Johnny shook his head. 

“No. I take it you have?” 

A flush creeped up Ten’s cheeks. Johnny loved the look of it. He also loved being the one to have made it happen, even if he wasn’t the original source of Ten’s blushworthy thoughts. 

“A few,” Ten admitted. “Nothing too serious.”

Johnny nodded calmly as if fucking men was the most casual conversation topic in the world. 

“Well thanks for trusting me with that information,” he said. “I know it’s not always easy. Especially here.” Johnny gestured vaguely at the window where the setting sun could be seen reflecting off of the Han river. 

Ten nodded. He felt like there was something else he should say, but he wasn’t sure what. He’d never actually told anyone he was gay before. It was kind of just a given. Back in Thailand people would take one good look at him and figure it out, but here he got the impression that he could be literally caught with another man’s dick in his mouth and people would still find some heterosexual explanation. It was completely moronic and he was so glad to find out that Johnny did not play into that same toxic sense of heteronormativity. 

“Thank you for being so cool about it,” Ten said finally. “It feels good to like, get it off my chest, you know?” 

Johnny laughed softly. 

“I bet.”

After Johnny’s laughter faded away, they lapsed into a long silence. There was something new hanging in the air between them. Not heavy or awkward, just...different. For instance, Ten was hyper aware of how close they were sitting and Johnny’s eyes kept wandering to the elegant curve of the other man’s neck. He wondered what it might be like to run his thumb across the delicate patch of skin, or maybe even his lips…

Ten was just opening his mouth to say something when there was a sudden knock at the door, startling them both. Johnny was quick to recover. 

“Come in!” he shouted, giving Ten just enough time to remove his hand from his chest and school his features into a neutral expression.

The door creaked open and through it poked a small head. Mark. He looked back and forth between Johnny and Ten. If he thought it was weird that the two of them were sitting so close together on Johnny’s bed, he kept it to himself. 

“I’m supposed to tell you guys that dinner is ready,” he said. 

Johnny thanked him and said they’d be down in a minute. Mark nodded and wasted no time closing the door and moving on to the next room. That kid was going to work himself into an early grave if he wasn’t careful. 

Once the sound of Mark’s footsteps had retreated down the hallway, Johnny and Ten couldn’t contain their laughter. They were both riding the high that came with having a mutually shared secret. So much so, that Mark’s very mundane interruption felt utterly ridiculous. 

“Come on,” Johnny said once his smiling mouth could form words. He stood and offered a hand to help Ten up. “We don’t want to keep everyone waiting.”

Ten kind of did though, especially if it meant a few more precious seconds as the undivided center of Johnny’s attention. It wasn’t like he could admit that though. Especially not after the conversation they’d just had. It would unquestionably make things weird between them. Johnny was his lifeline here. He couldn’t jeopardize their friendship right now. Maybe sometime in the future after they’d both made their debut, but that was a problem for another day. 

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe I'll write more? idk. I don't usually ship real people, but I'm a sucker for these two.


End file.
